Stop Going and Start Being

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This whole coronavirus thing has been and will continue to be quite a crazy ordeal. However, there have been several really positive things come out of this pandemic and one in particular makes me smile. It seems the church is being a little more like The Church.

The restrictions on group sizes are causing people to meet in their homes, which creates a smaller, more intimate setting where people can really get to know one another, meet one another’s needs, and reach out to those in need around them more than ever before. Acts Chapter 2 is playing out all over the world. But one aspect of this new church at home movement gives me pause. I think the idea and concept are amazing, but feel like many churches are missing a huge opportunity to let families start being the church instead of simply going to church.

Prior to church at home, the majority of our Sunday services were the typical western church model where the pastor and a few other select people used their gifts and talents to minister to those sitting in the pews. The focus was more on going to church rather than being the church. In many cases, we were like spectators at a performance. Now that we’re doing church at home, it seems like none of that has changed. It might actually be worse now. Pastors and church leaders are scrambling to figure out how to broadcast these performances into the homes of thousands of spectators where we sit on our couches or lay in our beds and watch. Well, that sounds a lot like a typical night of Netflix to me! 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I truly believe that God can draw people to Him any way He chooses, including a livestream of a service. But if we treat that time like any other 3-songs-offering-and-a-sermon Sunday, then we’re still just going to church instead of being the church.

I was eating lunch today and something my beautiful wife said got me to thinking about this new online church movement and how it could possibly be unhealthy for our families, especially for our kids. By having them sit in front of a screen and watch a church service, we’re essentially reinforcing what we’ve unintentionally been teaching them for years and years now; that a select group performs a few songs, a pastor gives a well-crafted sermon, and their job is to sit respectfully, listen well, and then hopefully go into the world and do what they were taught. But you all know as well as I do that our kids do as they see much more than do as they are told. Our kids need to see God in action!

So my thought was, what if we approached this church at home thing differently? What if we turned the TV or the laptop off and let our kids lead us in a few of their favorite worship songs? What if we gave everyone a turn reading scripture and then ask each other what God is speaking to us about it? What if we let everyone pray out loud what’s on their hearts? And then, what if we discussed as a family how we could best reach out to those around us in need and then acted on it? 

I’m getting goose bumps as I type this because the thought of how raw, real, and powerful this could be for our families is so exciting! And think about it, you can do this any day and time of the week. You could do it daily. You could sleep in on Sunday. (Gasp) The possibilities are endless!

Just imagine how this opportunity to BE the church could transform our families, communities, and the world. When our families, and most importantly, our kids, start to realize that they have the same power and authority that their pastors or children’s pastors do to teach, prophesy, lay hands on the sick, etc., we’ll start seeing these little world-changers do just that – change the world!

I’ll admit, we need to do way more of this in our own house and we, by no means, have this church thing completely figured out. We’ve been on a journey for quite a while now to try and figure out for ourselves how to be more like the church we read about in the New Testament. We do believe that we need to be connected or joined to a local body of believers, so don’t think I’m suggesting you bail on church altogether. But just maybe we should rethink how we can BE the church during this unprecedented time we find ourselves in.

Good Morning, Uncle Jared!

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These four words have become music to my ears! I hear them at least 15 times every day from the girls in our program while walking around our compound.

Kipindi Mpito, Forgotten Children’s new flagship program, has finally begun. After several years of vision casting, planning, and research, and almost 18 months of program development, 15 young ladies are currently being discipled, mentored, and taught the life skills they need to transition from girls to empowered women. I won’t lie, it’s been hard work. There have been days I’ve wanted to quit and go back to Tennessee. Honestly, there have been days I haven’t felt like doing much of anything because of things like the stress of learning a new culture, the indescribably chaotic traffic, or dealing with the government bureaucracy. But “Good morning, Uncle Jared!” makes all that fatigue and stress instantly disappear.

Someone asked me recently, “Do you feel like what you’re doing is making an impact for the Kingdom?” Seriously??? I’m a missionary. Of course I do! False. There are days when all this missionary work feels like just that, work. How does sitting in traffic for 5 hours to go 30 miles roundtrip for a 30-minute meeting impact the Kingdom? How does spending hours every week writing reports, reconciling accounts, or answering emails impact the Kingdom?

I’ll tell you how. Almost 18 months of those things and 537 other mundane and time-consuming tasks have brought us to “Good morning, Uncle Jared!“

There are tough days. A lot of them. But then there are days like this one…

I walked in the office a few days ago, a little earlier than normal, and heard singing on the other side of the Kipindi house. Obviously, I had to check it out. When I got to the common area, I saw our 15 girls gathered around Mama Cissy, our House Matron, and they were having their morning Bible study. One of the girls was leading the others, some not yet believers, in a worship song.

Hmmm. Kingdom impact?

After going back and settling in at my desk with a fresh cup of coffee, I couldn’t resist the urge to go back and check out some more of this awesomeness that was happening two walls over. So I found a reason to sneak back through to the kitchen. This time a different girl was sharing a Bible passage she had been studying with the group and explaining what it meant to her.

Kingdom impact.

By this time you’d think I would’ve just stayed and enjoyed what the Spirit of God was doing in that living room, but I try to keep a healthy distance so the girls feel comfortable sharing and praying openly. So I headed back to my office with a glass of water. But I couldn’t contain my excitement and REALLY needed a spoon to stir my morning pink drink, so after a few more minutes of pretending I wasn’t spying, I headed right back through the common area to the kitchen.

This time Mama Cissy was leading the girls in a time of prayer and all 16 ladies in that little living room were praying so loudly and intensely that I know God must’ve had His ear pressed firmly to the floor of Heaven with the biggest smile on His face.

KINGDOM IMPACT!

Later on that day, our director, Cathy, was updating me and our stateside leadership team on how the program was going so far. She shared how amazed and proud she was at the girls’ new and renewed interest in the Bible and prayer. She told us that some of the girls were saying they never really knew how to pray before and after only two weeks of Kipindi, they now know how to pray, and do it often. Some of the other girls, who aren’t believers (yet), have been bombarding her and the other staff with questions about Jesus and the Bible. They’re excited about reading scripture for the first time ever.

KINGDOM IMPACT!!!

The first class of girls at Kipindi Mpito

Now you’re probably thinking, what does this have to do with them telling you good morning? Well, it means they are finally here. Praying. Studying the Bible. Learning life skills. Growing in community. And they’re safe. If these girls weren’t at Kipindi, some of them could be forced into early marriage. Some of them could’ve been conned into moving to the Middle East where they would become domestic or sex slaves. Some could be pregnant at the age of 16. And some could’ve dropped out of school with no hope for a future. 

But they are here. And every smiling face I see with a “Good morning, Uncle Jared!” makes everything worth it. That’s Kingdom impact folks.

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” –Colossians 1:9-12 NIV

(In case you didn’t know, calling a man “uncle” in Uganda is totally normal and is intended to show respect for an older man who isn’t their father, pastor, etc.)

I Fink Dis is Fun!

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Sunday is market day in our little village, and that means our usual route to the highway is blocked by vendors setting up their booths, delivery trucks dropping off product, and hundreds of busy shoppers buying their weekly groceries. That means we get to take the “back way”if we leave the house. “Bumpiest way” would be more fitting, but I digress.

We were on our way to church one morning, taking the back way. We recently had a huge rain storm because of the cyclone that hit Malawi, and our normally bumpy roads were extra “rip the bottom off your vehicle and send you to the chiropractor” that day, so we were being tossed about like rag dolls. We were hitting our heads on the windows, on the roof of the van, and on each other. The bumps were even more special in the back of the van where I was sitting and attempting to brush and braid Moriah’s hair. Moriah was bracing herself for the jolts and jars of the bumpy ride with a gleeful grin on her face and entertaining herself with her signature creepy but cute diabolical giggle.

“Dis is fun mom!!! Don’t you fink dis is fun?!” She exclaimed. I was holding one of her hair ties in my lips while tensing up from head to toe to brace myself, so when I didn’t answer immediately, she added, “well, I fink dis is fun, because I’m a little kid!”

That’s when it hit me. Not a flying object projected from the impact of a bump, but how she could be so happy and blissfully unaware as we went dangerously off-roading through the village.

She knew she was safe with her hero, daddy, at the wheel. Knowing her daddy was up front navigating the dangerous and bumpy road made her free to enjoy the experience and find the adventure in it.

As children of God, shouldn’t we be even more so free to enjoy the experience and find the adventure in all things, knowing that our Perfect Father is at the proverbial wheel guiding our lives?

The times in my life when I experience the most fear and anxiety are the times when I’m at the wheel driving my own desires, navigating my own plans, and trying to dodge the bumps and potholes on my own. And the times I experience the most peace, joy, and rest are when I allow Father God to be at the wheel.

Honestly, if I had been able to answer Moriah, I would have made it abundantly clear that I didn’t find it as fun as she did. I prefer the comfort of a smoothly paved road. And being a taller person, I was able to see some of the scary bumps, mudholes, and crevices we were driving through. I was honestly concerned that we were going to get stuck or tear up the bottom of our van. I was too focused on staying perfectly still and stable in my seat, and worried about what might happen to us or the van to see the fun and adventure in the situation. Moriah, in her pink, prissy, and sheltered life, has never experienced insurmountable tragedy. She knows her daddy takes good care of us and she doesn’t have to worry about the details. Her job is to have fun and listen for instructions.

I love Matthew 18:3; “unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Growing up we were taught that passage meant in order to go to heaven, you have to be innocent, pure, or blameless. I’m learning more and more every day, however, that Jesus was telling us become more dependent on Father God and less dependent on ourselves. He’s telling us to become more blissfully unaware of the “what ifs” and to trust in our perfect Father so much that we can find joy and adventure in our everyday lives.

Oh how I long to be more like Moriah. Fearless and full of joy, and finding the adventure in every moment. Forsaking my comforts and fears to rest in the assurance that my Daddy is at the wheel and not shrinking back from the unknown. I fink dat will be fun.

“You Are Most Welcome!”

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Bewitched

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This is Patience. She’s 16 years old and in the equivalent of our sophomore year of high school. 

Patience is one of the 15 young ladies who will be in our brand-new program next year. We recently sat down with her and a few other young ladies who will be in the program to get to know them better and document their stories. Patience has an incredible story and we wanted to use part of it to tell you about one of most common threats against children here in Uganda.

Up until Patience was 7 years old, she was a very active and outgoing child. She led music and dancing at the church where her mother was a pastor and other children were actually a little jealous of the favor on her life and the natural leadership abilities she possessed. 

But one day she got very sick. For seemingly no reason she started having incapacitating stomach problems. It was so bad that she would miss weeks of school at a time and have to stay home in bed.

Her mother did everything she could to try and find out what was wrong with her. The doctors even thought at one point that she had stomach cancer, but after many tests and examinations, they concluded there was nothing physical causing her symptoms.

It was around that time, after almost 3 years of pain and suffering, that her mother decided to take Patience to their church to eat, sleep and stay for a whole week while she fasted and prayed to God for an answer to her daughter’s unbearable condition. After a week of living in the church, God spoke to her mother and told her that Patience had been “bewitched” or cursed. They were immediately taken back to a time 3 years ago when Patience had finished kindergarten and a strange woman in their village gave her an apple as a gift. God showed them that the woman was a witch and the apple was how she put a curse on her.

We know what you’re probably thinking, “that hocus pocus stuff isn’t real!” Well, unfortunately it is and we’ve seen it firsthand. Jared has personally witnessed a Ugandan friend’s foot rotting from a curse put on him by a witch doctor because his relatives wanted land that was given to him. After praying over him and declaring the curse broken in Jesus’s name, he came back the next day with a perfectly normal foot.

This stuff is very real and it happens every day here in Uganda. And children usually get the worst of it. Just do a quick Google search about “child sacrifice” or “child mutilation in Uganda” and see what you get. Children disappear in the bush daily to be sacrificed or to have body parts removed all because their families have been deceived and don’t know about the love and power of Jesus. Children are doused in acid or thrown alive into fires all because families believe they carry a curse that can only be broken by death. It’s sad. It’s gut-wrenching. It needs to stop.

Please join us in praying for all the children in Uganda, our staff, and our family as we encounter and deal with this stuff daily. Another great way to help us in the fight to keep children safe from witchcraft is by sponsoring a child or giving toward our overall vision and mission here in Uganda. The more kids we can get into safe and loving homes, and provide them the holistic care that every child deserves, the less children there are to be preyed upon.

Are You Thirsty?

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One morning recently, we had no water in the house, and we’d actually had no water or very low water pressure for several days. It was becoming very frustrating, especially for Jared, who works so hard to try and make everything perfect for us. It also happened to be one of our Luganda language class mornings, which made things even more stressful.

Our teacher, Amelia, arrived promptly at 9:00am and I explained to her that Jared would be late to class because he was working with the plumber to resolve the water problems. Amelia loves teaching Luganda, but loves teaching us about Ugandan culture even more.

Since we were having (what we thought was) a water crisis, she took some time to give me some cultural insight into how water is viewed in Uganda. The most common phrase about water in Luganda is, “bulamu be amazzi,” which is translated “water is life.” In Uganda, many people walk miles every day to reach the nearest water source and then carry home one or two extremely heavy 20-liter jerry cans of water. They also know how to make that water last as long as possible.

As soon as Amelia spoke that phrase, “water is life” in the midst of our perceived water crisis, it hit me like a brick to the face (tis the season for Home Alone references=). Oh, how often we satisfy our spiritual thirst with lesser things because we’ve never really been desperate for living water, and in turn, desperate for The One who gives it.

In Uganda, water is literally life. Hundreds of people die daily because of the lack of clean drinking water and the prevalence of water-borne diseases. 

Many Ugandans in the slums and villages are desperate for clean, life-giving water. They do whatever it takes to get it and can make what little they do get last for days. However, in the states, it’s just another thing we drink. It’s difficult for us Western Christians, with our endless comforts and conveniences, to truly realize our desperate need for living water, and The One who gives it.

In our home we’ve been asking ourselves some questions about this lately and wanted to challenge you to ask yourself also:

  • Am I spiritually dehydrated?
  • Is He just another thing I drink when I run out of soda, sweet tea, or anything really that distracts me, or is He my number one thirst quencher? 
  • Do I truly know how desperately I need this living water? 
  • Do I do whatever it takes daily to get my spiritual refreshment?
  • Am I so spiritually hydrated that I can make it through a few dry days every once in a while?

…Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. -John 4:13-14

Follow Daddy

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“Follow Daddy!” – two words I exclaim with what seems like every other breath as we adventure on the road, through airports and now across the world.

The kids don’t always know where we’re going, how we’re getting there or why we’re even going, but they know we will always feed them, always keep them safe and as long as they follow Daddy, everything will be alright.

Somehow, I always end up in the back of the pack with the short-legged ones, making sure no one gets left behind.

The two littles have a hard time keeping up with the sibling in front of them, much less Daddy, and tend to gradually drift out of line and slow to a snail’s pace as new and interesting things grab their attention. Many times, I also inherit their back packs or suitcases because “they’re just too heavy for arms!” Our oldest three, however, know the drill and know that if we can just keep pace with Daddy, we’ll get to our destination safely and efficiently.

The older three also tend to walk beside Daddy instead of behind him. Because they’ve spent so much time walking with him, they can almost anticipate his next move.

The two that read can sometimes spot our next move at the same time as Daddy and they get so excited and proud when Daddy confirms that they’re on the right track. Every once in a while, though, from my spot in the back, I can hear Jared telling them, “Boys, slow down and don’t get ahead of me!”

A spiritual parallel hit me as we were traipsing through the airport following Daddy on our biggest adventure to date:

It is so easy sometimes to lose pace with Daddy God and be distracted by new and interesting things that pale in comparison to Him. 

And think about how blessed we are to have the Holy Spirit bringing up the rear gently and sweetly whispering encouragement. “Just follow Daddy! Keep your eyes on Him. We’re almost there!” As we catch Daddy God’s vision and love for the world and mature as sons and daughters, we start to walk WITH Him, instead of behind Him. And oh, how gracious and kind Jesus is to help with our baggage when it’s too much for our little arms to carry.

So just like our kids, we sometimes don’t know where we’re going, how we’re getting there or why we’re even going, but we know that Daddy God will always feed us, always keep us safe and as long as we walk with Him, everything will be alright.

Q&A

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Since we are finally taking off for Uganda, we want to answer some questions we’ve been getting from folks recently. 

We LOVE chatting with you all and answering your questions about this crazy adventure, so keep them coming!

Be sure and read to the end to get the answer to the most frequently asked question, and if you have a question that isn’t answered here, reply to this email or find us on social media and ask away.

Question: How long will you be gone?

Answer: Until God tells us to move on. We plan to come home for a couple months to rest, visit family and friends, and raise more support after 2 years, however, we have every intention of returning to Uganda after that to continue serving orphaned and vulnerable kids.

Question: Do you have to get visas to live in Uganda?

Answer: Yes. Jared has been approved for a 3-year work permit and Kimberly and the kiddos will be issued 3-year entry passes based on Jared’s work permit.

Question: How long does it take to get to Uganda?

Answer: Between 1 to 2 days, depending on the airline and itinerary. The total travel time is 25 hours including layovers.

Question: How are you getting all your stuff to Uganda?

Answer: Back in April, we either sold or gave away all of our furniture and items we wouldn’t need in Uganda. That left us with 20 large totes (pictured below) of our clothes, toys, homeschool materials, and other personal items we didn’t want to part with. Those will fly with us as checked luggage since we get 3 free checked items each.

Question: What will you do for furniture in Uganda?

Answer: Fortunately, we have a cultural insider, Patrick, who has been preparing our home since early this year. He has helped us purchase, and set up almost all our furniture, so we’ll arrive to a cozy, mostly furnished home.

Question: Did you all have to get a bunch of shots?

Answer: Yes, we sure did!

Question: Will we be able to communicate with you after you move?

Answer: Yes! We will have internet in our home and will be able to communicate via social media, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and (for those with iPhones) iMessage and Facetime. Once we get settled and start our phone service there, we’ll give everyone our new phone numbers so you can call or message us on WhatsApp. If you don’t already have WhatsApp and want to be able to call us in Uganda, go ahead and download it on your phone’s app store. Also, we’ll still send our regular monthly newsletter to keep everyone updated on what’s going on in our lives.

Question: When can we come visit you?

Answer: Few things will bring us more joy than to have our family and friends visit us in Uganda! However, we respectfully ask that anyone who wants to visit please wait until we’ve had adequate time to settle in and adjust to Ugandan life. If you are seriously interested in visiting in the future, please let us know well in advance so we can plan a visit that will be both meaningful and rewarding for you and the Ugandans we will be working with.

And … The Most Frequently Asked Question:

Question: Why are you taking your 5 small children to live in a developing country?!!!

Answer: This is a very valid question, and we are always careful to answer it in a humble and loving way.

To be honest, we have asked ourselves this question many times. Every time we entertain the question though, we ultimately come to the same conclusion as to why we’re asking ourselves this. We believe FEAR is ultimately at the root of the question. Our fear for their safety, health, emotional well-being, education, etc. all roll up into this one question.

Recently though, we’ve come to realize that Father God loves our children infinitely more than we do. And He, without a doubt, called our family to GO. So many details, events, financial blessings, and confirmations have occurred that completely defy all human (or Western Church) logic. Things that seem illogical and impractical to us humans, are the very things God often uses to position us for kingdom purposes.

For us to say no to what/where He is calling us to out of fear of the unknown is to say yes to letting fear write our story. God is love, right? (I John 4:8) There is no fear in love and when you allow love to write your story, there is no limit to what He can do through you. And that’s where we want to be – right in the center of His love.

When The Waves Call

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For several years, one of our sons had a big fear of getting water in his eyes, nose, or ears. Bath time was like being waterboarded for him! He would happily play and splash in the bathwater until it came time to wash his hair. There are no words to describe how panicked and unreasonable he would get at that point.

The same fear also kept him from enjoying going to the pool, lake, or ocean. However, it seemed something about the water was always calling to him. After a few years passed, whenever we were at the pool or beach, we began to notice him starting to go deeper and deeper in the water on his own. He would get knocked down or inhale water, but something about the deep end of the pool or the ocean beyond the break of the waves kept drawing him in and he was determined to find out what it was.

Very quietly he would observe how others swam and try to copy their techniques. He was still afraid, but he was doing it! If Jared or I tried to coach him or give him instruction on how to swim, he would immediately shut down and revert back to being completely afraid. He knew that he alone needed to stare down that fear and ultimately conquer it.

He eventually did conquer that fear and is now our best and most adventurous swimmer! He actually scares Jared and I sometimes with the things he does or tries in the pool.

He still gets a little anxious and asks a ton of questions to help ease his mind about the body of water he’s about to jump into, but any anxiety he has instantly vanishes as soon as he sees the pool, lake, or ocean. In that moment he turns into this giddy, confident, smack-talking, and extroverted kid that we hardly ever get to see.

Over the last 8 years, we’ve felt a bit like our son, as we dipped our toes in the vast unknowns of living as a family on mission and now as we are preparing to move 8,000 miles away from everything we’ve ever known.

Fear has tried to come in with its lies to steal, paralyze, and poison the vision Father God is etching in our hearts, but we’ve already put our toes in the water. We aren’t promised that we’ll never be afraid. We’re promised a Comforter to help us to “do it afraid” and ultimately conquer the fear. We’ve come face to face with the deep satisfaction that only comes from laying our worries aside and pursuing the adventure set before us.

We’re still human so sometimes we’re doing it afraid, but we’re doing it.

Everything You Want to Know And More

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We’ve been chatting today about recent conversations with family and friends and, based on some of the questions we’ve been asked, we realize that we’ve not done a good job updating everyone as we’re preparing to move. So we decided to do a post of Morrisons on Mission FAQs. Feel free to ask anything we missed in the comments…

Will we be able to communicate with you after you get to Uganda? 
Yes! We’ll have cellphone and internet service. We currently live in the boonies here in the states and have terrible internet service, so we’ll actually have better service in Uganda. 

How can we get updates on the kids and the ministry?
First off, we realize everyone loves our kids more than they love us, and that’s ok!  We will post lots of pictures and short updates on Facebook and use the Morrisons on Mission blog for our long-winded updates or thoughts. 

When is your departure date?
Short answer… we don’t know! We have made a commitment to not leave for Uganda until we reach $4,500 in recurring monthly support. We currently still need $2,500 in recurring monthly support. 

Have you done any kind of missionary training?
Absolutely and we’re going to do some more! We are excited to be attending The Center for Intercultural Training missionary training in North Carolina in late May and early June. The training wraps up on June 15th, and we hope to depart for Uganda shortly after.

What are you going to do with your house?
We listed our house for sale a week and half ago and received a full price offer within 6 hours of listing. 

Has Jared quit his job already?
Jared has worked for an amazing company for the last 10 years and has gained great favor with his bosses and company owners. They are 100% supportive of our move and are allowing Jared to work up until April 6th to help us make a smoother transition. 

If you close on your house on March 30th, and you aren’t leaving until sometime in the summer, where will you stay in the meantime?
Good question! Anyone have a spare bedroom we can camp out in? Just kidding. Yes, we will technically be homeless for a while, but between our amazing and supportive family and the time we’ll be at missionary training, we’ll have a place to lay our heads down.

I don’t have the means to write a big donation check, so how can I help you?
Pray! Then pray some more! We need as much prayer covering as we can get. However, we also need monthly support. We don’t need big, one-time donation checks as much as we need 100-150 family members, friends, and fans of our kids  to commit to giving as little as $10-20 per month. We would rather have an army of folks who love and support us by praying and giving a little each month than just a few big monthly donors. Every little bit helps, and is GREATLY APPRECIATED!

I want to support you monthly, but don’t know when to start giving?
Even though we aren’t in Uganda yet, you can start your recurring donation now! We are saving up for several large one-time expenses that will come up as we move, plus we need to be a month ahead on our support when we arrive in Uganda. All of our support is being handled  through Forgotten Children Worldwide and will be held securely until needed and carefully accounted for when distributed to us in the field. 

What will you be doing when you get to Uganda?
This is by far the most frequently asked question! Here’s the short answer. Jared will be working with Forgotten Children Worldwide to oversee FCW’s mission primarily in Uganda, but also in Malawi and Zimbabwe, to safeguard vulnerable children and orphans. He will also be heading up an exciting new project that we can’t share all the details about just yet, but promise it’s going to be awesome! (Stay tuned!) Kimberly will be working part time with Karamojong United Family to help them support Karamojong children and families by sharing the Gospel, supporting education, resettlement, and health initiatives.

What will the kids do?
Our children will homeschool initially. We will have a homeschool helper to help make things easier on Kimberly and the kids at home. We will also get to take them on lots of fun adventures all over Uganda. They couldn’t be more excited!

Are there any other things you need for the move?
A couple of things we need that some folks may have laying around are essential oils and homeschool materials. We’ll gladly take any extra oils, and need 1st, 2nd and 5th grade homeschool materials for next school year. 

Thanks for all the love and support.

~Jared and Kimberly